Nine Hells
The Nine Hells are a collection of closely connected demi-planes that moves around Tolas. It is not connected to the world via a planar anchor and so is in drift away from Tolas. It is ruled by nine Archdevils in a strict hierarchy, each ruling over a different layer of the plane. History The history of the Hells is largely unknown to the denizens of Tolas. What is known has been gleaned from deals struck with long lived devils. Birth of Evil An unknown god once ruled the Hells, believed to be a paragon of law who battled the primordials, entities that claimed the world as theirs. This Nameless One is credited with creating a weapon of pure evil, an act which caused good to spring forth in response. This fragment of evil was used to strike down one of the titans so that they could be imprisoned. In some tales, the other gods slay their kin for this act of evil, in others the Nameless One fell against it's primordial foe or perhaps the creation of the weapon itself led to its death. Regardless, the god is dead, and their agents would come to be the devils who rule over the Hells. Hosts of Hell A power struggle followed as the champions of the Nameless One sought to maintain their master's legacy, though many of the original followers of that cause have long since forgotten their creator they continue to carry on the word of law as an unremembered legacy. During this time the Dragon Queen chose to hide in the Hells after destroying the planar anchor of the realm she once shared with her brother. Tiamat bound her new realm to Tolas with an anchor of her own, and by proxy brought the Hells close for enough for devils to step throught to the mortal plane. From the Hells, an Empire The devils of the Hells would use the proximity of their home to Tolas to cross over in vast numbers, conquering central Farthrone as they poured ceaselessly into the mortal plane. The realm of the devils on Tolas would become the Empire of Turath. The empire thrived for an age until the sheer volume of devils warped reality itself, allowing their demonic cousins to follow after them leading to the a blood war that would cause the collapse of the fiend's empire. Silence of the Gods During the Silence of the Gods, Tiamat disappeared from her realm, though the denizens of Hell did not spare the Dragon Queen much thought as they continued their fiendish deeds across the planes. Upon her return however, Tiamat was empowered by some dark knowledge and she separated her demi-plane from the Hells, forming it into a completed and fully fledged plane its own right. This has disconnected the Nine Hells from the world of Tolas, and while it may take centuries for it to drift far enough away so that journeys back and forth are impossible, as it stands now fiends still can be summoned, pacts can be made and bargains struck with dark powers from the Hells. Legions of the Damned Most of the forces of the Nine Hells are grouped into legions, with different legions having different roles in the hierarchy of the Hells. Most Archdevils have the loyalty of many different legions who are commanded by pit fiends or the greater devils of the Hells. Dreg Legions Legions comprised of the incompetent or weak devils fill out the dreg legions, composed of hordes of lemures. Deployed as a delaying tactic, serving as fodder to slow down an advancing enemy. Shield Legions Devils that remain in the Hells to defend its borders from invaders are formed into shield legions, such groups maintain the defences of the Hells manning watchtowers. The leaders of such legions are often tied to the politics of their layer or Archdevil patron. Sword Legions Those that seek out warfare on other planes are known as the sword legions, striking out against the enemies of the Nine Hells. Such forces are seldom tied down for long as their warriors grow bored easily seeking glory in battle, needing fresh victories to keep them content, lest they overthrown their generals and install new leaderships. Coin Legions The latest of the legions, the coin legions are a collective of thieves, rogues, and criminals that operate across the planes, with their headquarters being in Malbolge, with Glasya as their guildmistress. Layers The Nine Hells are so named because of the nine distinct planes that form it. Avernus Legends speak of Avernus being a bustling realm filled with cities, trade outposts, and works of art from a more enlightened age that few but Asmodeus himself can recall. It has been reduced to a blasted wasteland after untold centuries of conflict, the few surviving structures are citadels that fiends use to repel attackers, with most looming over the river Styx or on the borders of portals to other realms. Dis The plane of Dis is a massive sprawling city that stretches from horizon to horizon, and always the Iron Tower of Dis looms in the distance, seeming to shift and move as the viewer looks away so that it is always present and ever watching. The city is made of iron, its very foundations are of metal still red hot from its forging and from the heat of the constant smelting being undertaken throughout its many wards and districts. It has many prisons, fortresses that serve to ready the souls of those that bargained away their afterlives for some dark secret or terrible truth that gave them some boon in life, but has damned them in death. Here also those devils and fiends native to Dis that have been slain in other realms reform, surrounded by jailers and prisoners. If the manner in which they were slain has stained them or in some way lost them the favour of Dispater they are demoted here, and given new purpose in the Iron City. Minauros The shabby kingdom of Minauros teeters on the edge of ruin, and were in not for the efforts of thousands of slaves and thralls the many cities and fortresses of the plane would sink into the swamps where they would be drawn into the bottomless muck below. The capital, the Sinking City, is where Mammon dwells squeezing every coins out of the merchants and caravans that arrive in the plane to haggle over wares, whilst at the same time the greedy Archdevil is unwilling to spend any more than is absolutely necessary to keep the city from being devoured by the plane. Phlegethos The Diabolical Court serves as Belial's seat of, a bastion of law and order surrounded by the depraved city of Abriymoch which in turn serves as Fierna's. It is a fiery realm filled with immense volcanoes and a sea of molten rock, a vision of the Hells that is oft visited upon mortals in their dreams as Fierna casts an eye across the world. The fires of this plane seem to be alive, leaping at intruders as well as engulfing everyone and anything they can touch with their burning tendrils. These flames however do not harm the devils of the Nine Hells, as indeed many were born in it, with those worthy souls harvest from the river Styx judged by Belial's Diabolical Court to be granted promotion to another form, their fiendish flesh burned away so they can be reborn anew. Stygia Stygia is at its a frozen expanse. Vast sheets of ice cover over the ruins of the plane's previous inhabitants. Those devils who inhabit it are often trapped by shifting glaciers and lost in great crevasse that open up without warning. Malbolge Malebolge is covered in dense forest and open drifts all of which is covered in ash which falls steadily from the darkened skies. Glasya offers little attention to the outer reaches of her plane which now sit in a silence uncharacteristic to the Hells. Maladomini Maladomini's landscape is dotted with beautiful cities of architectural perfection and fantastic scale, every one left to ruin. Maladomini's ruler, Beezelbub designs and builds them over and over, only to later instruct his followers to tear them down and start again, as each attempt inevitably begins to rot from within, the paint sloughing off and mortar turning to pus. Cania Cania's landscape is wracked by constant storms, fires gout from the cracked earth which meets forked lightning from above. It is a realm as inhospitable as Stygia above, the only refuge being in Mephistopheles' tower which rise up like pillars holding up the storm above. Nessus Nessus is devoid of all activity, with the arrival of any creature starkly contrasting with the silence that was complete before their arrival interrupted it. Asmodeus treasures his privacy, in his domain of rocky fissures and bleak pits with no markings or signs to point the way. Somewhere in this wasteland a fortress is said to exist where Asmodeus dwells, from where his messengers take flight to deliver their lord's will, or magicks that carry his very whispers wind their way through the Hells to find one of his minions on any plane. Archdevils For more on this topic, see here. For each layer of the Hells there is an Archdevil who holds dominion over it, so it has been since the birth of the Hells and so it must always be. The Archdevils are fiends of tremendous power, with the most powerful amongst them approaching the realms of godhood. The Archdevils are forever prepossessed with their internal power struggles and politics, though in recent years the unmooring of the Hells has spurred them into unlikely alliances. Category:In-World Concepts Category:The Nine Hells Category:Plane Category:Fiends